Bank Hall Estate
The Bank Hall Estate is the demesne of the jacobean mansion house of Bank Hall, including much of land around the village of Bretherton, which is owned by the Lilford Trust.
The Estate began when the Banastre family moved to Lancashire from Prestatyn, North Wales in 1240. The estate covers many acres of land that surround a jacobean hall constructed by the family in 1608 (on the site of a much older building), situated to the west of the village of Bretherton. The Banastre's Estate and wealth grew from farming and leasing land, which continues to this very day with the current management.
The Estate is owned by the Lilford Trust and managed by Acland Bracewell & Co Ltd who also own properties in the villages of Bretherton, Croston, Hesketh Bank, Mere Brow, Much Hoole, Rufford, Sollom and Tarleton, In summer 2009, the Bank Hall mansion and 18 acres (73,000 m2) of gardens was signed in a 999-year lease from the Lilford Estates over to the Heritage Trust for the North West and Bank Hall Action Group, with plans for restoration.
The present Bretherton includes the ancient village of Thorp, the position of which appears to have left no trace.Bretherton village for most of its existence was an almost self-supporting, self-contained 'subsistence agrarian economy'. Major changes to the village have occurred within living memory; well-paid employment opportunities coupled with rationalisation of farming facilitated people to escape their low income agrarian lifestyle and move to local urban centres. Since then the village has become a dormitory village, with the majority of the residential properties now owned by their residents, but some are still leased from the estates. As the decline in British farming affected the village population and agricultural industry, many of the farms and barns have been converted into residential properties attracting wealth.
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